Staff
SUSAN E. BRYANT, SHAREHOLDER
- E-mail: sbryant@bryantlawgroup.com
- Telephone: 207-230-0066
Ms. Bryant has over 30 years experience in securities, corporate, compliance and business law matters through the private practice of law, as a regulator and as in-house securities counsel.
EDUCATION:
- Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts - B.A. - June 1970.
- Honors: Wellesley College Scholar (Cum Laude)
- University of Oklahoma School of Law, Norman, Oklahoma - J.D. - December 1975.
- Honors: Class rank - 5 of 165, Order of the Coif,
- Oklahoma Law Review, Research Editor, 1974-1975.
- Awards: Alfred C. Hunt Practice Court Award; Prentice Hall Book Prize in Income Tax Law; American Jurisprudence Book Prize in Trusts; Maurice Merrill Book Prize in Oil and Gas Law; American Jurisprudence Book Prize in Remedies.
LAW FIRM EXPERIENCE
1975 to 1986, private practice of law through medium sized firms in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Lincoln, Nebraska. Her practice included organizing and structuring corporations, partnerships and other entities; structuring and qualifying private and public securities offerings; providing ongoing corporate, tax and securities advice to private and public companies; structuring commercial transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, exchange offers and partnership roll-ups; and assisting with securities litigation.
REGULATORY EXPERIENCE
1986 to 1991, Administrator, Oklahoma Department of Securities. As the senior securities regulator in Oklahoma, Ms. Bryant oversaw a staff of 39 whose duties involved broker-dealer and investment adviser registration, examination and licensing; enforcing the state securities laws through administrative, civil and criminal actions; review and evaluation of securities registration filings and interpretive opinion requests; Ms. Bryant personally developed, drafted and lobbied for the adoption of amendments to Oklahoma Securities Act and Securities Regulations. In 1989, she was elected President of NASAA, where she worked closely with staff of the SEC and FINRA on enforcement, administrative, rule-making and legislative matters and testified before Congressional Committees on matters involving investor protection, enforcement of securities laws and broker dealer and investment adviser regulation.
IN HOUSE EXPERIENCE
From 1991 to 1993, Ms. Bryant was the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of First Investors Corporation, New York, New York, a mutual fund complex based on Wall Street. As part of her responsibilities, Ms. Bryant was involved in restructuring the compliance and supervisory systems at the broker-dealer and investment adviser subsidiaries of the firm, and assisted with mutual fund and variable annuity issues.
Ms. Bryant left First Investors in 1993 to become a securities attorney for Aetna Inc. At Aetna, her responsibilities included advising and serving as Secretary of the Aetna mutual funds, structuring and registering with the SEC Aetna's variable annuities, variable insurance products and mutual funds; providing advice and support to mutual fund boards of directors; providing securities and compliance advice to fund managers, broker-dealers and investment adviser subsidiaries; assisting in establishing new mutual funds, variable products and a financial planning division. In 1997, she received the Ascent Award from the Aetna Retirement Services business group.
RETURN TO PRIVATE PRACTICE
Ms. Bryant left Aetna in 1997 to establish Bryant Law.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Instructor, Morse School of Business, Hartford, Connecticut, Fall 1997-1998. Information Technology and Transcription courses.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, University of Oklahoma School of Law, Norman, Oklahoma, Spring 1988. Three-hour course in Corporate Law.
Adjunct Professor of Law, Oklahoma City University School of Law, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1987-1988. Three-hour course in Federal Securities Regulation and two-hour course in State Securities (Blue-Sky) Regulation.
Adjunct Professor of Accounting, Oklahoma City University, Meinders School of Business, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1986-1987. Graduate level, three-hour course in Federal Income Tax Planning.
LICENSES
Admitted: Connecticut (1995), Maine (2004), Massachusetts (2008), Missouri (2002), Nebraska (1985), New York (1992), and Oklahoma (1976).
PUBLICATIONS
Variable Products and Blue Sky Laws, NSCP Currents, March/April 2000.
Comments on Reform of the U.S. Financial and Securities Markets, Toledo Transcript, Spring 1990.
Oklahoma Securities Act - 1984 Amendments, (with P. David Newsome, Jr.) 55 Okla. B.J. 2659 (1984).